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Recently there has been a proliferation of interest in the topic of total supply chain management. This interest has prompted many companies in the fast moving consumer goods sector to review their inventory policies and, in particular, levels of finished stock. Responsibility for finished stock often falls between production and distribution leaving it rather like a “piggy in the middle”. Unilever and Insight have pooled their resources in order to perform joint research into how stock levels can be reduced across the total supply chain and how responsibility for finished stock can be shared between production and distribution. Describes the strengths and weaknesses of different techniques in this field. Findings from the research show that simulation, when combined with mathematical theory, is a powerful and practical tool for both reducing stock through improved inventory policies and bridging the gap between production and distribution. An analogous approach may be applied to the control of stock levels of raw materials and packaging.

The period from the death of Charles Stewart Parnell (1891) to the establishment of the Irish Free State (1922) was a momentous one for Ireland. There was a cultural revitalization (1891– 1916), a Rising (1916), the Anglo‐Irish War (1919–21), the Treaty (1922), and the Civil War (1922–23) before the new Irish state settled into a routine pattern. This was a period characterized by assertive nationalism, dogmatism, and intolerance that led to violence and bloodshed. The result would be an independent Ireland, but a divided Ireland with potential for explosion in the North. Still there were people who surmounted the polemic of the moment and sought rational compromise and mutual tolerance. These were individuals who sought limited practical objectives, empathized with their adversaries, demonstrated civility, and often predicted the problems of the future. These were the “apostles of peace”. Among Ireland's many notables, three of such caliber stand out — Arthur Griffith, Horace Plunkett, and Eoin MacNeill. These men were intimately associated with the affairs of their day and were recognized for their integrity and professional accomplishment. They were also associated with the major peaceful attempts to solve Ireland's problems and avoid the warfare that ensued. Griffith, the journalist, founded the early Sinn Fein and came temporarily to lead the Irish Free State. Plunkett, the Anglo‐Irish aristocrat, founded the cooperative movement. MacNeill, the civil servant and historian, was involved in starting the Gaelic League and the Irish Volunteers. These were the “apostles of peace” and Ireland's subsequent trauma stemmed from their limited number. The objective of this study is to examine the careers of these three exceptional notables and ascertain if there exist some pattern. Are there generalizations that might be made about them collectively?

In this chapter, the authors discuss how school counselors may create a college-going environment for African American males in middle school. The authors use Bronfenbrenner’s (1979) Ecological Systems Theory to explain how environmental influences impact African American males’ college trajectory, both positively and negatively. Moreover, they use Ecological Systems Theory to discuss how multiple stakeholders (e.g., school counselors and parents) and various structured activities that align with the Eight Components of College and Career Readiness (NOSCA, 2010) may promote college preparation among Black male middle school students. The authors also present two case vignettes as examples of how school counselors may assist African American males for postsecondary options. In closing, the chapter concludes with implications for educational policy, research, and practice.

Examines the management of quality from the perspective of organizational culture change. Discusses the nature of quality and the evolution of the management of quality in relation to key issues arising from the literature on organizational culture. It is found that total quality management (TQM) makes a number of assumptions about organizational culture. Adopts an integrationist perspective, with culture defined in terms of something an organization has, as opposed to something an organization is. Presents a tentative model of the relationship implied between TQM and organizational culture. A number of questions emerge, not least of which concern the strength and direction of this relationship. The culture perspective is likely to challenge some of the basic assumptions found in the TQM literature. In so doing, it may inform organizational attempts to raise levels of quality.

Marketing has radically changed in the past few years. With the rise of digital marketing, search technology, blogging and podcasts, consumer access to information and content has exploded. This paper aims to provide a critical look at one aspect of this change, inbound marketing and the creation of content to drive engagement. Inbound marketing differs from traditional marketing by pulling customers to the firm, as opposed to reaching out through traditional advertising.

This study provides an overview of inbound marketing and illustrate three views of inbound marketing: digital, social and content marketing.

The study highlights the importance of consumer personae, critical content creation and customer strategies.

The study concludes with a look to the future of inbound marketing and clear guidelines for developing an inbound strategy, including understanding the buyer personas, strategic analysis and a formulized plan for inbound content creation.

This work combines traditional theoretical research and analysis to provide a comprehensive and clear illustration of what inbound marketing is and where it can be used in both business strategy and academic research.

The purpose of this article is to examine the difficulties associated with quality costing and propose a solution based upon the use of knowledge management techniques.

A widely available software tool is used to create a quality costing ontology based upon the prevention appraisal failure classification of quality costs. This ontology is used for the collection, processing, sharing and use of quality cost‐related knowledge. The ontology was evaluated using case study data and compared with conventional approaches to quality costing.

The quality costing ontology is easier and more efficient than conventional quality costing methods. It has greater capability in terms of the analysis and use of quality costing knowledge and overcomes the barriers to quality costing due to poor understanding and awareness.

The quality costing ontology provides a platform for researchers to investigate quality cost behaviour within a well‐structured environment. The use of alternative classifications to prevention appraisal failure in the ontology need to be investigated further.

Traditionally, training and education have been used to rectify poor understanding and awareness of quality costs but with limited success. The quality cost ontology provides an alternative solution that uses knowledge management (KM) technology and is based on information systems.

The authors could find no research or published paper that has discussed the role of KM in quality costing.

DUBLIN DID NOT LACK literary talent in 1924. When Francis Stuart, his wife Iseult, and Cecil Salkeld decided to bring out a new periodical devoted to the arts, they found little difficulty collecting material. W. B. Yeats and Joseph Campbell contributed poems, Liam O'Flaherty a short story. Lennox Robinson—dramatist, director of the Abbey Theatre and secretary of the Carnegie United Kingdom Trust's Irish office—was too busy to write anything specially, but offered a story written years previously in New York, ‘The Madonna of Slieve Dun’. The first issue of To‐morrow: a New Irish Monthly (price sixpence) appeared in August. Within six months the Carnegie Trust's Irish Advisory Committee was suspended and Robinson, its secretary, dismissed.

Purpose – This capstone chapter introduces Amartya Sen's important and innovative theory of justice to researchers on fairness in groups and organizations. Here, I discuss how Sen's theory can provide grounding for both philosophical and social scientific work on justice and how social science research can inform and be informed by Sen's theory.

Design/methodology/approach – In this chapter, I discuss Sen's new book, A Theory of Justice, and explain the main aspects of Sen's theory of justice. I then draw conceptual linkages between Sen's theory and those introduced in each of the other chapters included in this volume.

Findings – I show that Sen's view of justice goes beyond social contract theories that attempt to identify ideal institutional arrangements to seek practical solutions that increase justice as experienced by actual people in the world. Rather than parallel endeavors, Sen's approach reveals philosophy and social science to be deeply connected to each other and to justice by providing a unifying theme by which various social scientific traditions are shown to study aspects of the same underlying phenomena. Further, I demonstrate how philosophy and social science together can increase justice in the world.

Originality/value – Sen's theory of justice, though influential in economic and policy circles, is largely unfamiliar to social psychologists and organizational scholars. I introduce these fields to Sen's theory of justice and show how it is useful for social psychological approaches to the study of fairness in groups and organizations.